Tag Archives: Carlos Rosario

On September 27, about 20 teachers at our Affiliate, Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School, in Washington, DC, introduced NCLR’s High School Democracy Project to their students. Carlos Rosario is a leading educational institution that predominantly serves the immigrant community in the area, and has been instrumental in implementing this exciting new program.

Over the past year, our staff has worked together with teachers, students, and administrators in these schools to develop a six-lesson curriculum that guides students through the different aspects of democracy, including the right to vote and the role of government in our lives.

From September 19 to 23, 53 partner organization implemented the curriculum in 16 states, including Texas and California, the two states with the largest Latino youth populations.

Students at Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School are adults who attend English language learner, general education development, and career classes. They are immigrants advancing their education to achieve the American Dream. One teacher, Ms. Anderson, is using the curriculum in her nursing class, offering students the opportunity to register through our Latinos Vote app.

Ms. Anderson teaching her students the Democracy Curriculum

According to a Child Trends report, only 16% of 18–24-year-olds voted in the 2014 election. Young Latinos had the second-lowest turnout rate in 2012 at 32%. To combat this, NCLR began developing the democracy curriculum a year ago.

Meanwhile in California, Academia Avance Charter School used the curriculum with their senior class. Over the past year, Academia Avance registered 54 eligible seniors to vote in this election and will be using the curriculum every year in the school’s government classes.

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“As a newly registered voter, I’m really excited to vote for the first time because I want to know how it feels to speak my mind with my vote; I hope my vote makes a difference in our community,” said Melissa Garcia, an Academia Avance graduate who recently turned 18.

Just like Melissa, there are millions of students turning 18 every year in high schools around the country. There are also many people like Rosy, a student at Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School who became a citizen in July of this year, who need to be integrated into our democracy as well. This integration requires the right approach so they can learn about their new country and be engaged in its democracy. As election season winds down, we look forward to the results of this first year of the curriculum and working with new voters in the years to come.

At Carlos Rosario School, one of our Washington, DC Affiliates, staffers have been working hard to register as many new voters as they can in advance of the 2016 election. Earlier this week, we shared with you responses from one of those newly registered, Jennifer Zoeller. She is also a brand new citizen who will be casting her very first vote in a U.S. election next month!

Now, in a new video, our Affiliate has produced a brand new video highlighting why other new Americans will be voting next month. Watch the video and then let us know why you vote!

Jennifer Zoeller came to the United States from her native Colombia when she was 25. She eventually married a U.S. citizen and settled into life in her adopted home. Jennifer studied English at our Washington, DC, Affiliate, Carlos Rosario School from 2011 to 2014 and took a position at the school after graduating. Although Jennifer was eligible to become a citizen in 2013, she hesitated at first because she didn’t see the urgency. But after pressure from friends and family, she decided to start the process. Given this year’s political climate, she’s really glad she did.

This national election will be the first one in which Jennifer will cast a vote. Here she is, in her own words, about why she’s voting this year, and why you should too.

Congressman Gutierrez and NCLR Affiliates rally to support executive action and comprehensive immigration reform: This Thursday, Congressman Gutierrez (D-Ill.) spoke to a crowd of nearly 200 at a high school in Washington, DC, touching on executive action, comprehensive immigration reform, and his own personal story. This was the Congressman’s 20th stop on his “Immigration Action National Tour,” a national undertaking to inform the immigrant community of the requirements and importance of DACA and DAPA. An article quotes Gutierrez saying, “It’s a huge task and the more people know, the earlier they know it, the better prepared they will be to take advantage. It’s my responsibility not only to demand action here in Washington, D.C., but to ensure to the best of my ability that it is implemented as broadly and as widely and as generously as possible.” Each event also includes volunteers who meet with those potentially eligible for deferred action to inform them about the process and to help get them ready to apply once the programs are no longer on a court-mandated hold. NCLR Affiliates, including Ayuda, CARECEN, Carlos Rosario, La Clinica del Pueblo, Latin American Youth Center, and Mary’s Center, co-sponsored the community town hall.

NCLR blog series features DACA recipient Carla Mena: This week’s installment of our ‘Living the American DREAM’ blog series profiles North Carolinian Carla Mena, who received DACA in 2012. DACA has enabled Carla to get a full-time job at Duke University’s Global Health Institute and to continue engaging her community through serving on the Wake Health Services Board of Trustees and working with NCLR Affiliate Youth Council at El Pueblo, Inc. While Carla has a temporary reprieve from deportation, her parents, and millions of others, don’t. DAPA, the program for parents of U.S. citizen children or legal permanent residents, is on hold. Our blog notes: “DAPA would provide opportunities for millions of skilled immigrants to work in fields where they can earn and contribute more. If DACA recipients have demonstrated in just three years what this program can do for communities like Raleigh, perhaps it’s time to consider something more stable. Carla’s story attests to the social and economic benefits of administrative relief, however, the overhaul of our immigration policies remain a critical task that Congress must undertake.”

House Republicans Convene hearing on birthright citizenship: This week, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on whether or not birthright citizenship, the policy of granting U.S. citizenship to each child born on U.S. soil supported by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, is good for America. In advance of the subcommittee hearing, civil rights leaders and members of Congress held a press conference to denounce the hearing. NCLR Deputy Vice President, Clarissa Martinez de Castro, said “It’s time to legislate responsibly; we want relief, resolution, and reform.” Democratic Members of Congress weighed in decrying the substance of the hearing, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying, “Evidently, there is no American principle too sacred not to be surrendered in Republicans’ race to pander to the most radical, anti-immigrant corners of their party. Today’s hearing is an appalling Republican effort to reverse one of our most fundamental constitutional guarantees: people born on American soil are Americans.” A Latin Postarticle quoted other Members of Congress, including Senator Menendez (D-N.J.), who said the hearing is a “painful reminder that we cannot and must not tolerate second-class citizenship, inequality, intolerance, and injustice. It is a humiliating reminder of the jingoistic insensitivity of the few toward multiculturalism and the changing face of America in the 21st Century.”